The federal Export-Import Bank provided more than $1.1 billion in assistance to local businesses and supported almost $3 billion in export sales from 2007-2014, according to a
The bank is the official export credit agency of the U.S. government. Since President Franklin Roosevelt established it by executive order 80 years ago, it has loaned capital to foreign buyers to help them purchase U.S. products, and provided loan and insurance assistance to American exporters.
A 1945 law required Congress to reauthorize it periodically, which it has done 15 times since 1945, but a firestorm of criticism has engulfed it lately.
Delta and other U.S. airlines oppose the bank's financing of widebody jet purchases by competing foreign carriers, and libertarians have called it government-sponsored corporate welfare.
"The Export-Import Bank is an important resource for our local economy and a key part of ensuring that New York City companies can expand their business overseas," Stringer said in a Wednesday statement. "Reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank costs taxpayers nothing while helping local businesses generate jobs."
Stringer's report, titled "Beyond the Boroughs," cited more than $900 million worth of support to small city businesses, which supported $2.67 billion worth of sales, and more than $48 million in support to minority and women-owned businesses, which backstopped more than $131 million worth of sales.
The report highlights the experiences of a skin care company, a chocolatier and a textile firm showing how the Export-Import Bank helped them maintain and expand their businesses. All three advocated strongly for the bank's continued operation: "Without the Export Import Bank we would probably end up losing international customers," said Paul Fields, vice president of Albatross USA of Long Island City in Queens, which provides textile cleaning products for clothing manufacturers.
